


Short 6 - Team Effort

by stgjr



Series: "The Power of a Name" Series 1 - "Time Lord Ascendant" [12]
Category: Doctor Who, Multi-Fandom, The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher, crossover - Fandom
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 02:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10265531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stgjr/pseuds/stgjr
Summary: The vicious vampires of the Red Court are attempting to excavate the Crack in the Multiverse under Chicago, so our narrator and his Companions join forces with wizard Harry Dresden and his allies to stop them.  Well, allies and that other guy, he's not so much an ally... "frenemy" is more like it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on January 26th, 2014.

So the setup is as follows. Due to the traitor in the White Council, the Red Court of Vampires found out about the Crack in Chicago's Undertown. They were undoubtedly told of just what it allowed an untrained practitioner dabbling in necromancy to do and figured it would let them do even more.  
  
Of course, a Red Court force entering Chicago meant coming into the attention of Harry Dresden, Wizard for Hire, and the various allies he could call upon.  
  
Like, well, yours truly.  
  
I shan't bore you with the setup. We met at Harry's apartment, moved everyone into the TARDIS, had the obligatory "It's bigger on the inside!" surprise for those who hadn't met us before, and went on from there.  
  
Namely, by effectively landing in the middle of the Red Court's base for this operation: an old warehouse over the location of the Crack in Undertown.  
  
And so it was sheer bloody chaos.  
  
They had human retainers and half-vampires eager for their first kill with them. It was an army. We had, well, not an army, but certainly a superpowered strike force.  
  
I stood not far from the veiled opening of the TARDIS, behind which Molly Carpenter was keeping our escape route hidden with Camilla watching her back. Janias, meanwhile, was standing side by side with Harry's half-brother Thomas Raith, a White Court vampire (Instead of sucking your blood he sucks your life force by, well, intimate acts shall we say), her lightsaber and his falcata blade sweeping all before them with Mouse along for the fun. Occasionally I heard the bark of Thomas' pistol. Blood will tell.  
  
To our other side we had Billy and Georgia Borden and their college friends; Harry's hairy (haha) werewolf allies known as the Alphas. In wolf form they were graceful and deadly, ripping and tearing through the enemy with practiced efficiency.  
  
Naturally, despite my aching body (that whole skyscraper thing), I was in the center with Harry, sonic screwdriver in hand. Because, as I'd already learned, Reds had a real sensitivity to some sonic frequencies, allowing me to bring them down and Harry to take them out.  
  
As their numbers increased they got too close for comfort. One set of claws raked at Harry's jacket. Another tore at my cuff. "Oi, I've already ruined one jacket!", I shouted in irritation, dropping the offender with a sonic burst.  
  
"That dinky little sonic screwdriver isn't going to cut it, Doc," Harry pointed out. " _Forzare!_ " A blast of force bowled over some of the "jaguar warriors" trying to cut Harry in two. "You're going to have to get a real weapon to hold them off."  
  
"Well, one moment." I looked back to the invisible space where Molly had veiled the TARDIS. "Cami! Throw me the big one!"  
  
"Doc, eyes front!"  
  
From out of nowhere (That is, from within Molly's veil) came a light gray object with a purple tip like my screwdriver. It was smoother than a sonic screwdriver but roughly the same shape, just that it was something like two feet long. I caught it with my right hand and brought it about. A press of a button created a sonic burst powerful enough to bowl over every attacker moving towards us in the center.  
  
Harry looked over at me and my new sonic blaster. He looked at it and to the blasting rod in his hand which, while not of similar shape, had similar length. And then he glanced at me again and let out a series of fake coughs, the word "Ripoff" hidden in each.  
  
"Oh, don't you start. Supersized sonic screwdriver for self-defense, it's going to look like a rod!" Seeing a full Red vampire coming up behind him I brought the full-sized sonic up.  
  
Harry raised his blasting rod over my left shoulder as well. " _Fuego!_ " I could feel the heat of the flame lance he made with it even as my finger found the trigger, sending an intense sonic blast into the Red behind Harry and sending it sprawling. Having covered each others backs we took a step to the rear and cleared our flanks with magic and sonics.  
  
There was a yelp from the Alphas, telling us that one of them had been hurt. I glanced over and sent a sonic burst into one that was menacing... okay, I'm not sure, I think it was either Kirby or Billy. I'd just met the bloody Alphas and I didn't see them transform, I couldn't tell them apart yet alright? The others came to the aid of their wounded friend, having the effect of shortening our "line" and forcing us further back. "Harry. When you suggested we 'drop in' on the Reds, I thought you had a plan beyond that."  
  
"I did. It's called 'Set them all on fire'," he answered.  
  
"Oh, how like you. Charge in and burn things!"  
  
"I don't see you coming up with any brilliant plans with that Time Lord brain of your's. I didn't know they had this many goons to throw at us, alright!"  
  
I let out a groan, but a Red forced me to keep my attention on the fight. When you're recovering from falling from a skyscraper I guess there's nothing to help you recover like a terrible battle for your very survival against things that want to drain the blood from your body.  
  
Oh, who am I kidding? I was going to need another day in the hot tub at this rate.  
  
"This has to be a major Red operation for them to have this much manpower," Harry noted.  
  
"Well, we're not going to hold this place like we are, Harry! A strategic withdrawal might be in order."  
  
Before Harry could respond, one of the doors to the side of the building flew open. We turned to look at what it was.  
  
We got our answer with the first shout.  
  
" _In Nomine Dei!_ "  
  
Like the avenging angels he usually embodied, Michael Carpenter descended into a gaggle of melee-armed jaguar warriors, clad in the armor of a crusading knight and looking even fiercer. His holy sword _Amoracchius_ blazed with white light as it found the torsos and limbs of the vampire forces arrayed against him. His voice boomed through the warehouse, the Latin phrases strong and resonant. Even from where we were I could feel the energy rippling out of him. One vampire that attempted to grab him had the entire limb burst into white flame when it made contact. It would have been better off trying to grab a furnace.  
  
The arrival of a Knight of the Sword shifted the tide of our battle. Janias and Thomas grew more aggressive in their attacks, Janias in particular digging into her reserves and using the Force more freely in a series of exhausting Ataru maneuvers. Mouse switched sides, rushing to the aid of the Alphas and turning the tide of battle on that side as well.  
  
With our flanks clear Harry cut loose. I may have had a sonic "blasting rod", but all I could do was knock people around with sonic waves and the like. Harry's flames and blasts of force devastated the ranks in front of us, taking out fresh troops and recovered ones alike.  
  
Seeing these powerhouses at full charge robbed the Red Court forces of whatever morale they had left. They broke and fled. The survivors of the Red Court fled into the night.  
  
Or at least they tried. We heard automatic weapons fire in the distance. I looked to Harry. "Harry, who do you think that is?"  
  
"Well, you know some things about this world, right? Who is the only guy in Chicago who can have his guys firing off automatic rifles and get away with it?"  
  
I admit my first worry was that it was Lara Raith looking to come and claim the Crack for herself, but rather I saw another of Harry's "frenemies" enter the door alongside heavily-armed mercs, a man clad in a sharp business suit. Sharp green eyes looked at me and at the TARDIS, revealed once Molly let the veil down. "I've heard rumors about you, Doctor," the man said. "But I never expected to see you." He stepped up to me and extended a hand I knew to be stained in blood. "John Marcone."  
  
"Ah, the Gentleman," I answered. I accepted the hand very slightly; it wasn't one I wanted to be shaking beyond the demands of armed diplomacy. "Imagine seeing you here."  
  
"Gentleman" Johnnie Marcone. He was the Moriarty of Chicago, the Napoleon of Crime in the Windy City and its environs. As mafia bosses went he was remarkably civilized, exploiting Chicago's traditional corruption to stay ahead of federal and state authorities while bringing order to the mean streets. Everyone knew that in Chicago you didn't do anything to children or to innocent civilians. This was because the ones who didn't know were, frankly, all dead. He had recognized the existence of the supernatural fairly easily and worked within that framework, ultimately getting the necessary endorsements (including one from Harry, who owed him a favor) to sign into the Unseelie Accords as a freeholding lord, giving him legal power and responsibility in the supernatural world.  
  
A flexible mind with a strong will. Oi, that was always a dangerous combination.  
  
"As a signatory to the Accords I consider it best to keep an eye on all activity in my city by certain... parties." Marcone smiled slightly. "When I discovered that a Red Court shell company had purchased a property in this area, so close to that 'riot' a few months ago, I knew it was a situation I needed to be interested in. And when my sources told me about this 'Crack in the Universe', well, you can see why I'm here."  
  
"You're an astute enough man to know you'll never be able to use it for yourself," I remarked.  
  
"Agreed. This 'Crack' is a danger to my city, Doctor. I want it controlled. Or gone. I don't care which."  
  
"I may be able to help you there."  
  
Despite the tensions in the room - our team didn't trust Marcone's, Marcone's didn't trust ours - we walked over to where the Reds had been digging. They had brought in a lot of machinery to accomplish the dig with ground penetrating radar machines all around the building. I ran my normal sonic screwdriver over the hole. "I'm picking up energy emissions just like the ones before. They might have gotten into the chamber already."  
  
"I'll have my men refill the hole," Marcone said. "It'll be safe."  
  
I looked at Harry. We had discussed if I could try and seal it, but unlike the one I had sealed before we had nobody who'd been in prolonged contact with the Crack, who could understand its power ebbs. If we tried to seal it and it went wrong... the Crack might grow worse. "Harry, do you think that any kind of magic circle could contain the energies of the Crack?"  
  
"For a while, yeah. But eventually circles can break down if they're active. If we can seal the thing it would be better."  
  
"Sealing won't be easy without someone who's attuned to it." I drew in a breath. "It's almost to summer, correct?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Then we only had four or five months before Nicodemus and the Denarians return to Chicago. If _they_ were to find the Crack...  
  
I swallowed at that prospect. "We'll have to risk it. Janias, I know your Force precognition isn't exactly what I need, but I'm going to put you on the Time Vortex Regulator. Harry will be provide a conduit for a link between our minds so you can understand what we're doing. I'll need someone to go down with me to seal it."  
  
"I will, Doctor," Marcone said.  
  
I looked to him. "Because you want to see it done, of course."  
  
"I prefer knowing things for sure."  
  
"Well... I suppose it's proper symmetry. Last time I did this I had a federal agent helping me."  
  
Marcone smiled at that. "Well, I imagine I'll make a more competent partner then."  
  
From Anthony DiNozzo to Johnnie Marcone. Some might call that an upgrade, others a downgrade. I was leaning toward the latter, no matter how charming Marcone was. "Very well. We'll arrange a rope and harness system to lower ourselves. Camilla! Get the cables attached and I'm going to need..."  
  
Undoubtedly you want to hear more of this. To have more banter between the lot of us, or for me to describe an exciting sequence of sealing the Crack. Sadly, it was all very anti-climactic. Marcone did nothing against us and we were rather winded from the fight so, for the most part, everyone took the time to recover while we got ready. Marcone and I went down. As we were lowered, I whispered a prayer, or something like that, to the soul of Lonny, the poor young man who had just wanted to bring his parents back and had instead doomed himself and his younger brother Dustin.  
  
Thinking of Dustin brought an unpleasant contrast to my mind. For all of his evil deeds... Johnnie Marcone believed in protecting children. The White Council believed it perfectly acceptable to lop a child's head off at the slightest taint of black magic.  
  
So much for moral superiority, I suppose.  
  
The Crack hadn't changed much. The Reds had barely carved their way to it so Lonny's body was still in the makeshift tomb Korra had left him. Marcone stared at it with some wonder before, at my instigation, he applied the quantum emitter to it. I did my part as well and, in a few minutes, the Crack snapped shut, sealed in the lower dimensions.  
  
Our work was done.  
  
  
  
  
There's not much to describe of that night save the epilogue. Namely, when we had all piled into the TARDIS and shifted to the backyard of the Carpenter home, we found the Carpenter family waiting for us outside. Michael hugged his wife and accepted hugs from his children while Molly hugged her mother as well. As Harry went to close the TARDIS Michael gestured to us. "I asked Charity to prepare a big enough dinner for everyone," he said in a pleasant voice. "Please, we would be happy to have you." Husband and wife stood together smiling, inviting us into their home.  
  
Well, we were rather hungry, and so everyone accepted. And yet... there was one element of this meeting that I was uncertain of. Namely... Janias and Camilla.  
  
They were holding hands as they came from the TARDIS, unafraid of announcing what they shared. I stepped up beside them and waited to see the Carpenters' reactions even as Molly introduced them to her family. When their relationship was made clear, I tried to read the Carpenters' expressions.  
  
Their smiles never budged. "Molly told us about you and what you've been through," Charity said to them. "God be thanked that you're free of that. You young ladies are always welcome to visit. The same for you, Doctor." The formidable woman looked toward me.  
  
I was duly chastened indeed by their nonplussed and understanding reaction to my Companions and their interspecies lesbian romance. It was a good experience to remind me of the dangers of prejudice.  
  
"When she first met me she wasn't nearly as nice," Harry pointed out.  
  
"She was probably afraid you'd burn down the house," I muttered in _sotto voce_.  
  
"I don't have to take this from a shameless copycat ripping off my blasting rod," Harry retorted. "Mine is longer anyway."  
  
"For the last bloody time, Dresden..."  
  
Our exchange ended long enough for me to accept dinner as well. And what a dinner it was. The finest of comfort foods and spreads in enough quantity to feed an army, if just a small one.  
  
Beyond dinner the Carpenter children were duly entertained indeed, regaled by my Companions and I of stories of the Multiverse, and we even finally got that play-doh out of Harry's hair. We never found the youthful perpetrator. I will not confirm or deny that this was because Molly and I covered for said offender to hide our own role. I suspect the same was true in reverse for the youthful perpetrator that put an ice cube down my collar.  
  
I also took the time to return to the TARDIS and return with a treat for our four-legged friend, who met me at the door to accept it. "Finest dog treat of the 28th Century, Mouse," I said. "A thank you for that favor." When he barked lightly in reply I nodded and sighed. "Yes, of course I noticed. It's why I'm giving you a doggy biscuit from the future. _Bon appetit_."  
  
And I shall leave you with that: the lot of us gathered in the home of the Carpenters enjoying the best of meals and company.  
  
What? These stories don't all end on ominous or dramatic notes, you know.


End file.
